A friend recently gave me a fair amount of used 4”x6”x1/4” steel angle. After unloading this I got a bit of a bug up the bum and decided to start building a track for a band saw mill.

I ended up with 2 tracks as seen in the pictures 8’ 6” long x 56” wide and stringers on 36” centers, all I have left to finish this is to level it up, weld the two tracks together, add a tandem axle and hitch.

I have a design in my head for the band saw head itself but I think I’ll purchase a set of plans off the internet and merge my ideas with those readily available.

I’ll post updated pictures as I go along but its going to be a slow project due to expenses, but I’m finding a good amount of free items from torn down mobile homes and the like.

If for some reason I don’t complete the mill I’ll have one heck of a trailer. This beast is heavy!

Wish me Luck
Sam Gordon
KY

Heres the front section of my mill track
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/trilect/3ef995cc.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/trilect/b4352c98.jpg

Heres the second section on the trailer, I can't move these by hand and I'm still sore from flipping this manually onto the trailer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/trilect/501a0e83.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/trilect/86310c93.jpg

P.S. I found out the hard way that arc welding goggles don't stop the face from being baddly burned by the welding arc, I should probably regrow the skin on my face and front of my scalp in a few weeks.

Nice start. This is one of my future projects as well. what plans are you going to use?

you've probably seen these pics...
http://www.smnet.net/pmwinston/Mill/1stmill.html
http://www.smnet.net/pmwinston/Mill2/2ndsaw.htm

Nice start. This is one of my future projects as well. what plans are you going to use?

you've probably seen these pics...
http://www.smnet.net/pmwinston/Mill/1stmill.html
http://www.smnet.net/pmwinston/Mill2/2ndsaw.htm

Bill Rake's, I didn't know there where plans out there until I started drawing my own up, then I looked and saw the easy mill plans and figured his work and my ideas are unproven.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13024/fintrack1.jpg

tracks welded together, tongue and coupler connected and single axle attached. I'll have to add another axle to this heavy beast. I also think I need to drop the tires below the level of my tracks to make it easier loading logs.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13024/engine.jpg

Here's my engine! It runs good, doesn't leak oil but rusty as hades. I'm going to rebuild this around the end of December.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13024/arbor.jpg

this will be my future drive wheel axle nice old well built materials.

total cost so far

79 bucks plus gas.

hello
i was about to take on this project myself and happen to see this post. I was woundering how far allong you were?

you may want to check out this site, http://diybandmill.com/ , I think I have seen his bandmill on there too.

Cool. :)

Yep thats me on DIY as well.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19808&stc=1

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19809&stc=1

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19810&stc=1

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19811&stc=1

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19812&stc=1

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19813&stc=1

I hope these attachments work alright.

Basically I'm almost ready to install my blade and set up the tracking. I'm also fabricating some blade guides at night. This build is taking much longer than I thought but the build cost hasn't been all that much. I have spent approx 1200 - 1500 on the build so far and will spend another 300 or 400 to finish it. Most of the materials have been salvaged by me or given to me by others.

Sorry for the late update.

This is one of my guides I made last night. Not finished yet, I still have to install a hardened bottom plate the rides against the bottom of the bandsaw blade.

mounted my blade, adjusted tires to be coplaner, tracked blade, made a drive belt tensioner, made a high teck gas tank from an empty quart oil container and fired it up. blade tracked perfectly. I can't cut anything yet until I get my guides finished.

P.S. I didn't use plans when I made this, I pretty much pulled everything out of my tail during fabrication. I did look at a bunch of photo's of different mills and I'm trying to incorporate items that I liked from each one (assuming I have the materials). I have to mount my guides and start on the safety covers before I chop myself in half.

very nice trilect, when do you think you will be able to make a test cut? what is the engine from?

very nice trilect, when do you think you will be able to make a test cut? what is the engine from?

I won't be able to cut anything until I get my guides mounted, I had a bit of a problem locating some 1-1/4 id box tubing that would allow a 1-1/4 square to telescope into it. So instead of looking around anymore I bought some 1-1/2 x 3/16 angle. I'll weld couple pieces of angle together into my own box tubing for my guide mounts.

The engine came off an old hay bailer. The weather almost ruined the engine but I managed to find all the parts for an overhaul that I did last winter.

My next project will be blade guards and a lift system. For the lift I'm going to use a 130VDC baldor gear motor 8.5 rpm at 1/4 hp. With a chain with a 2 to 1 chain drive and 3.5 inch lift spockets I calculate that I should be able to lift a max of 768 pounds. My saw head weighs approx 500 pounds +/-. The chain driven lift should lift both sides more accurately than a single cable can. (I hope)

I'm on vacation next week and hope to work on it a bit more but my wife might have other plans. I would have worked on it today but I dang near got heat stroke yesterday and still have the headache and cold chills today.

Funny thing about the whole project is how it got started. While wood working 2 years ago I bought some really crappy wood from a supply house and spent 200.00 on 8 boards, the quality and price peeved me off and I decided to build my own little mill to cut some boards for wood working and build a kiln. Well as you can see from my photos, the little mill grew alot. I actually have plans to try to add a CNC capability to the beast by adding spendals on both ends and a cutter on the saw head. Perhaps I'll try CNC cutting some totem poles.

finished my blade guides, mounted the guide support arms. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the guide adjusters mounted and I'll be able to make a test cut.

First cut, worked well. I still have to mount log clamps and log dogs. heres a few photos.

NICE! That's quite the accomplishment. When I get out of Phoenix, a band saw mill will be one of my first projects!! I hope mine turns out as good as yours. :cheers:

Now all you need is an auto feed.

Now all you need is an auto feed.

Amen to that, if I pick up a few sideline cad jobs I plan on adding a hydraulic power pack, log loader and a log turner (fabricated of course)

Thanks for the comments folks. I really need to get some guards on this thing.

working on guards. They are ugly.

how does this not eat the tire? do not get me wrong....way to go. It's just with my luck the blade would eat the tire before the wood.
TC

how does this not eat the tire? do not get me wrong....way to go. It's just with my luck the blade would eat the tire before the wood.
TC

The middle of the blade rides and follows the crown of the tire, And the tire is moving at the same speed as the blade, thus no cutting action happens. I researched a few other bandsaws that used tires and non have replaced the tired after a million board feet cut.

I'll monitor my tires as I begin cutting large amounts of lumber, the bad thing about tires is not being able to use kerosine as a blade lubricant, I'm stuck with soap water and pinesol.

i am not saying that it will not work. As far as i know it may be the best way to do it. I understand that there is no realitive movement between the blade and the tire. It just looks spooky to me. i would rather smell soap and water than karosine anyway.
happy cutting

i am not saying that it will not work. As far as i know it may be the best way to do it. I understand that there is no realitive movement between the blade and the tire. It just looks spooky to me. i would rather smell soap and water than karosine anyway.
happy cutting

I thought the same thing originally, Many told me that tires would never work but I found a few folks that built using tires that proved they did work.

Now I can't say mine will work well yet, I hope it does but I can't say till I saw a few thousand board feet of lumber. I did build in enough space for a switchover to bandsaw shieves if the tires don't work.

Pretty darn awsome!

Picked up a really nice 140 VDC baldor gear motor and DC controller yesterday to switch my bandsaw lift from hand crank over to electric. Also picked up a 3/4hp 190 VDC motor and controller for my smithy 1220ltd, Constantly switching pulleys sucks.

all right, getting close to finishing. I would have been done already but I've only been working on rain free weekends.

This week I mounted five 4' pieces of 6x8 i-beam on the sawmill bed. Each is indepently adjustable.

Also I installed the saw head lift using a 130 vdc gear motor #60 chains etc.

I'm also tweaking a programmable counter and encoder setup to automatically set cutting depth.

photo's attached

Thats very cool. Are you really going to be cutting enough logs to need that beast?

Thats very cool. Are you really going to be cutting enough logs to need that beast?

Good question. Its one of those things that I started out planning on a small mill that would cut 20 inch dia logs that sorta grew and grew.

Honestly, I don't think I could ever load anything over 30 inches on this mill myself without a dozer or something. I'm just having fun building the project.

I do have a couple loggers lined up to supply logs though.

Well my mill is pretty much done as far as fabrication goes, I'll have on going improvements and or tweaks.

Anyway, I installed a log clamp, log stops, leveled the i-beam bunks and installed a blade lube system.

The blade lube system consists of a pump sprayer with a modified freon recharge valve and a latching on/off valve.

I'll be putting on the encoder and counter soon for automatic cut thickness selection and I'll be adding a power feed on the carraige.

There are a few photo's of a cedar I cut up in less than 30 minutes showing a pretty good cut quality, board thickness varied by 1/100 of an inch over the entire board length (checked with a caliber). This is way better than I ever expected my mill to do.

So I guess this ends my thread

Wow. Fantastic, well done. :D

Just out of curiosity, I never bought an entire tree before! Does it work out much cheaper to buy logs instead of pre-cut timber? (Excluding building the mill obviously)

Wow. Fantastic, well done. :D

Just out of curiosity, I never bought an entire tree before! Does it work out much cheaper to buy logs instead of pre-cut timber? (Excluding building the mill obviously)

Probably if you have somebody to cut it, a place to let it air dry for a year, then somebody else to kiln dry it for you. :)

two words. Solar Kiln.

3 months in a self built solar kiln and most woods are ready to use. If you are using the lumber to build barns or sheds you can use it green if you learn how to work with the green boards movement.

I haven't bought any trees yet but people have given me several thousand board feet of logs so far. There are a couple logs that I'm afraid to saw for fear of tramp metal.

One of the pluses of the mill is the ability to saw the wood the way you want it. Oak crotch slabs for tables? no problem. Quarter sawn quilted maple? no problem. There is alot of pretty figured woods being cut up for firewood around me.